Highways Ministry to borrow Rs. 15bn from China to develop 105km of roads

The Highways Ministry is to borrow Rs 15bn from the China Development Bank (CDB) to develop 105km of roads in Sri Lanka, the Government said this week, without specifying precise locations or explaining its urgency in the midst of a global pandemic.

The loan is under the continuing ‘Priority Roads Project’ or PRP, authoritative sources said, and is separate from another towering loan the Government is looking to raise to meet the counterpart funding for the first phase of the Central Expressway (CEP I).

Last week, the Sunday Times cited a Cabinet memorandum that sought to borrow Rs 31.7bn for this stage of the project. The Chinese party that won the contract— M/ s Metallurgical Corporation of China ( MCC)— has since agreed to foot 7.5 percent of this bill. But that still leaves the Government with substantial borrowings at a time when the global economy is racked by uncertainty.

The Highways Ministry is also in talks to move forward with CEP III and IV and at least one stage of the Ruwanpura Expressway, as well as a road from Mattala to Pottuvil for which it wants to hand out a feasibility study. None of these moves have been publicly announced yet.

Meanwhile, residents of School Avenue in Nawala were surprised to witness a stream of Highways Ministry and Road Development Authority ( RDA) officials visiting a nearby marshland and making ground assessments for a bridge from their lane to Angampitiya Road in Kotte. The 750m long structure is to be made of steel, similar to the overhead bridge in Rajagiriya.

The officials also had the plan in their possession. The RDA later claimed it was “only a proposal” but other senior sources said there was little information in the organization of deals being struck with the involvement of a core group.

The Ministry and RDA are making moves, too, to allocate a contract or the New Kelani Bridge to Rajagiriya. All these negotiations—mostly with handpicked parties— are kept under tight wraps and are taking place despite the curfew and pandemic which has hit Sri Lankans in multiple ways.

The CDB also leant money to the Sri Lanka Government for the PRP under administration of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. More recently, it pledged US$ 500mn with a ten-year payback period, purportedly to help Sri Lanka respond better to the COVID-19 pandemic.